Saturday March 24th Top Sports News

Below: What to Expect in the Coming Weeks
Follow us on Twitter : @sportsjournal5

NFL:

• Andrew Luck and Robert Griffin III both had excellent pro days and the topic being debated is which of the two will be this years #1 pick! Which one would you pick?
• A mystery team that could have been in on the Peyton Manning sweepstakes were the Philadelphia Eagles. I can't imagine what would have happened if they had actually signed him...
• Tim Tebow has been traded to the New York Jets and is looking to get Mark Sanchez's starting QB job.
• Mike Wallace is asking for Larry Fitzgerald money and no team has still signed him.The front runners are the Denver Broncos and the Pittsburgh Steelers.
• Warren Sapp has accused Jeremy Shockey of being the player who told the NFL front-office about the bounty program. The free-agent tight-end has been trying to prove that he is not the "snitch" and even tweeted a picture of his chat with Saints manager, Sean Payton.

• Jeff Saturday signed with the Green Bay Packers after the Denver Broncos showed a lot of interest in him as they wanted to reunite him with his former QB, Peyton Manning.
• The Denver Broncos signed one of Peyton's former teammates as Jacob Tamme agreed to a three year deal with the team.
• In a move that probably ends a circle, the New York Jets traded QB Drew Stanton to the Colts. Here is the Circle : Manning to the Broncos (this forces Tebow out), Tebow to the Jets (this forces Stanton out), Stanton to the Colts (the end).
• Marion Barber of the Chicago Bears retired after seven years in the NFL. Congratulations on a great career!
• In other Chicago Bears running-back news, they signed Michael Bush to a four year deal and shortly after Matt Forte went on a Twitter Rant:

Soccer:

• Chelsea and Tottenham had the chances to scores but never capitalized on their opportunities and the game ended 0-0. Some people may argue that Chelsea was not given two penalties but this game could have easily gone to Tottenham as Cech made some brilliant saves and Gary Cahill also had a very impressive stop on an Adebayor attempt to score.
• Arsenal moved even more ahead than Chelsea and Tottenham as they beat Aston Villa 3-0. The goals came from Gibbs, Walcott and Arteta.
• Wigan upset Liverpool as they beat them 1-2. Liverpool tied the game with a Luis Suarez goal but that wasn't enough as Caldwell of Wigan went on to score in the 63rd minute to give Wigan the win.

College Basketball: New Feature!

• Baylor is moving on to the next round as they beat Xavier 75-70. The Baylor Bears grabbed a big early lead which the Musketeers tried to catch up too but never made it. Acy had a double-double for Baylor with 20 points and 15 rebounds.
• The Kansas Jayhawks held-off North Carolina State's rally in the end of the game and secured a place in the Elite Eight as they beat the Wolfpack 57-60. Thomas Robinson recorded a double-double for Kansas with 18 points and 15 rebounds.
• The Kentucky Wildcats did not allow the Indiana Hoosiers to beat them again. This time they moved on easily to the Elite Eight by beating Indiana 90-102. Kentucky's top performer was Kidd Gilchrist with 24 points and 10 rebounds.
• In the final game of Friday, The Ohio Bobcats could not continue their run as they fell short to the North Carolina Tar-Heels. Ohio almost pulled off another upset as they took UNC to overtime but then fell to the Tar-Heels 65-73.

Predicting tonight's games:

• NBA
• Grizzlies over Clippers
• Atlanta over Washington
• Bobcats over Nets
• New York over Detroit
• Bulls over Raptors
• San Antonio over New Orleans
• Rockets over Mavericks
• Indiana over Milwaukee
• Warriors over Kings
• NHL
• Stars over Flames
• Buffalo over Minnesota
• Rangers over Maple Leafs
• Ottawa over Pittsburgh
• Flyers over Canadiens
• Tampa Bay over New York Islanders
• Red Wings over Hurricane
• Winnipeg over Nashville
• Kings over Bruins
• Colorado over Vancouver
• Sharks over Coyotes

Noteworthy thing of the day:

• Here is a SportsCenter Twitter fail when reporting the Tim Tebow trade news:

#FakeTwitterAccount'ed

Stat of the day: New Feature!

• Kevin Love set a Minnesota Timberwolves record Friday night as he dropped 51 points on the Oklahoma City Thunder. The player who previously held the record was Kevin Garnett with 47 points.

Weekend's (February 25th - 26th) Top Sports News

Follow us on Twitter : @sportsjournal5
NBA:

• Return of Rasheed. Rasheed Wallace has signed with the Los Angeles Lakers. It's exciting to see him coming back but it's not a good pickup from the Lakers I think.
• East won the Celebrity All-Star game Friday night as comedian Kevin Hart was voted MVP of the game after he got ejected from the game. Hilarious. The score of the game was East 86 - 54 West as Durant coached the West and Howard the East.
• Kyrie Erving was named Rising Stars MVP as Team Chuck beat Team Shaq 144-136. The #1 pick of the 2011 draft had an amazing game as he had 34 points, 9 assists and made 8 out of 8 three pointers! Team Shaq was led by Tristan Thompson.
• If you didn't already know Derrick Rose is rich and will become even more richer as he has signed a $260 million contract with Adidas. Nothing else to say.
• I did not watch it personally but judging from some tweets I read the Dunk Contest disappointed. A lot. Jeremy Evans of the Utah Jazz won the competition. The NBA should have superstars do the dunk contest next year.
• Kevin Love, Tony Parker and Team New York were winners on Saturday night as they won the 3 Point Contest, All Star Skills competition and Haier Shooting Stars competition respectively.

Kevin Hart seems very happy after winning the MVP award.

NHL:

• Ales Hemsky is off the trade market for now as he and the Edmonton Oilers agreed to a two year $10 million deal.
• In a salary dump the New York Rangers have sent Wojtek Wolski to the Florida Panthers for a 2013 third round pick and Mike Vernace to New York.
• Mared Zidlicky waived his no-trade clause to get traded to the New Jersey Devils for Kurtis Foster, Nick Palmieri, Stephane Veilleux and draft picks. Good trade for the Devils as they acquired a player who could boost their defense.
• Ryan Nugent-Hopkins has once again returned from injury, this time from shoulder injury and will be in Edmonton's lineup against the Coyotes.
• To kick off trading on Sunday, the Ottawa Senators traded for St. Louis Blues goalie Ben Bishop for a second round pick.
• Rick Nash to the New York Rangers is heating up as Mark Spector tweeted of the possible trade that could send the Blue Jackets' captain to New York. Rick Nash's agent wants this saga to finish before the deadline.

MLB:

• Terry Mathews has passed away at the age of 47. He was a right-handed reliever who played for the Marlins, O's, Royals and the Texas Rangers. He suffered a heart attack. Rest in peace.
• Russel Martin and the New York Yankees have given up on contract extension but will continue talking after this season.
• Joe Strauss of the St. Louis Post reports that Yadier Molina and the Cardinals are close to an extension. Good news for Cards fans.
• Other good news for Cardinals fans, Adam Wainwright threw in a batting practice session in Spring Training.
• Joel Zumaya is injured once again. We will know the results of the MRI tomorrow or Monday morning Phil Mackey says.
• New Boston Red Sox manager Bobby Valentine has banned beer in the team's clubhouse. How about fried chicken?
• Ryan Zimmerman and the Washington Nationals are talking for a contract extension and the main cause of them not reaching one is the Nats not willing to give him a no-trade clause. Both sides are positive that they will reach a deal. UPDATE: Nationals and Zimmerman reach a six year $100 million deal.

Soccer:

• In Premier League competition the derby between Chelsea beat Bolton 3-0 with goals from Luiz, Drogba and Lampard ; Manchester City beat Blackburn 3-0 too, the scorers were Balotelli, Agüero and Dzeko ; West Brom beat Sunderland 4-0, the Sunderland that eliminated Arsenal from the FA Cup... On Sunday things were not looking good for Arsenal as they were losing to Tottenham 0-2 until the 40th minute when Sagna scored. After that the team never looked back as Arsenal scored 4 consecutive goals to make an amazing comeback and win 5-2! Norwich almost got away with the draw but Manchester United always has its way. Ryan Giggs scored a goal in the 90th minute to give United the win. Norwich has tied the game in the 84th minute.
• The League Cup Champions are.. Liverpool
• Genoa made a comeback to tie with Parma 2-2 as they scored goals at the 78th and 90th minute both coming from Palacio. The two top teams of the Seria A played each other Saturday and tied 1-1 as Nocerino and Matri for A.C. Milan and Juventus respectively.
• In a dramatic ending in France Paris St. Germain made a comeback against Lyon to tie a high scoring game at 4 as "Les Parisiens" scored in the 90th minute in an amazing game.

Predicting tonight's games:

• NBA
• ***Saturday***
• Paul George wins Dunk Contest
• Team New York wins Haier Shooting Stars Competition
• Kyrie Irving wins Taco Bell Skills Challenge
• Kevin Love wins Foot Locker Three-Point Contest
• ***Sunday***
• Eastern All-Stars over Western All-Stars
• NHL
• ***Saturday***
• Lightning over Penguins
• St. Louis over Winnipeg
• Coyotes over Edmonton
• Toronto over Washington
• Senators over Bruins
• New York Rangers over Buffalo
• Panthers over Hurricanes
• Detroit over Colorado
• Kings over Blackhawks
• Nashville over Sharks
• Flames over Flyers
• ***Sunday***
• Bolts over Devils
• Pittsburgh over Columbus
• Canucks over Stars
• Ottawa over New York Islanders
• Panthers over Canadiens
• San Jose over Minnesota
• Ducks over Blackhawks

(POST WILL BE UPDATED ALL-DAY LONG)

Wednesday February 22nd Top Sports News

Follow us on Twitter : @sportsjournal5

NFL:

• Brady Quinn of the Denver Broncos first bashed Tim Tebow and then went to apologize. Why say anything against Tebow when you haven't done anything as great as him?
• Robert Griffin III will not throw at the Combine, he will only run as many people have questioned how his passing abilities will fare in the NFL.

NBA:

• The Spurs streak stopped as they were demolished by the Portland Blazers by 40 points! Kawhi Leonard had 24 points for San Antonio while LaMarcus Aldridge led the Blazers with 21 points.
• A lot of close games in the NBA tonight. First of the all the Detroit Pistons and Cleveland Cavaliers went at it in a game that saw Lebron's former team get away with a win behind Antawn Jamison's 32 points and 10 rebounds.
• The New Orleans could not get the win in the end as they were able to push the game to overtime but then lost to the Indiana Pacers 108-117. Ariza was very good once again scoring 21 point and Roy Hibbert exploded for 30 points.
• Joe Johnson will sit out two weeks as he injured his knee, because of this he will miss the All-Star game. So who's in? Jeremy Lin?
• In other injury news Shawne Williams of the New Jersey Nets will undergo foot surgery.
• The Los Angeles Lakers apparently had a players only meeting. The front office problems will be a big issue for the Lakers in the future as things seem to be going bad.

NHL:

• The Chicago Blackhawks cooled down the Detroit Red Wings as they won 2-1 to win their 4th straight. Chicago's goals were scored by Jimmy Hayes and Marcus Kruger.
• The New York Rangers lost for the first time in two years at CONSOL Energy Center as the Penguins beat them 2-0. Marc-Andre Fleury got the shutout and one goal was scored by Evgeni Malkin and the other one by Steve Sullivan.
• The red-hot Devils beat the Toronto Maple Leafs in overtime 4-3 with the winning-goal coming from Mark Fayne.
• Jeff Carter scored a hat-trick as the Colombus Blue Jackets rolled over the San Jose Sharks 6-3.
• The New York Islanders failed to make a comeback against the Buffalo Sabres as they lost 2-1. The Sabres' goals came from Myers and Vanek while the Islanders' only goal came from Nielsen.
• The Colorado Avalanche and the Tampa Bay Lightning made trade yesterday as the Bolts acquired Quincey and Downie headed to Colorado. Quincey will not play a game as a Bolt as they traded him to the Red Wings for a pick. The Tampa Bay Lightning now have a ton of picks. Here they are  according to Pierre Lebrun.

MLB:

• Eric Chavez has reached a one year deal worth $900 thousand reported John Heyman:

• De La Cruz (pitching prospect) of the Cleveland Indians was traded to the Texas Rangers for cash considerations.
• Tony LaRussa is spending time at the Detroit Tigers camp as Jim Leyland is a very good friend of his.
• Yu Darvish arrived at Rangers camp. Very risky signing by the defending American League Champions as they paid over $100 million for him. Will he be another Dice-K?
•  The Theo Epstein compensation has finally been solved and you wonder why the teams made all that fuss as the Boston Red Sox only Chris Carpenter who is a reliever.
• Here is a video of Tim Wakefield announcing his retirement from baseball. He gets really emotional and you could see how much he loved this sport.

Soccer:

• In the Champions League competition Real Madrid tied 1-1 with CSKA Moscow. Real was up on the scoreboard until the last minute of the game (Cristiano Ronaldo had scored in the 28th minute) as the dramatic finish of the game reached its climax when Wernbloom scored to tie this game up! In the other game of the competition we saw another comeback as Napoli beat Chelsea 3-1 as Mata scored first in the game to give Chelsea the lead but then Ezequiel Lavezzi and Edinson Cavani took over to give Napoli the win!
• In Italy Bologna beat Fiorentina 2-0 in the Serie A league as Diamanti and Ramirez both scored a goal. 

Predicting tonight's games:

• NBA
• Pistons over Raptors
• Sacramento over Washington
• Pacers over Bobcats
• New Orleans over Cleveland
• Celtics over Thunder
• Orlando over New Jersey
• Knicks over Hawks
• Chicago over Milwaukee
• 76ers over Rockets
• Minnesota over Utah
• Warriors over Suns
• Dallas over Los Angeles (Lakers)
• Clippers over Nuggets
• NHL
• Capitals over Senators
• St. Louis over Boston
• Kings over Avalanche

Noteworthy thing of the day:

Arsenal Striker Thierry Henry will install a huge aquarium in his house. It will cost him $4.5 Million to demolish his house in London first and then to install it another $400 thousand.  If I had that money I would never build that aquarium.

Thierry Henry's House via the Daily Mail

(THIS POST WILL BE UPDATED AS THE DAY GOES ON)

Saturday February 18th Top Sports News

Follow us on Twitter: @sportsjournal5
NFL:

• A preliminary agreement has been reached on the new Vikings Stadium.
• An 18 game season still looks like an option says Roger Goodell.
• DeSean Jackson looks like he is staying in Philly as the Eagles will apply their franchise tag on him.
• Hue Jackson will serve as assistant coach helping the secondary and special teams of the Cincinnati Bengals.

NBA:

• The specifics of J.R. Smith's contract with the Knicks are : $2.5 million for a year and a player option for the second year according to Adrian Wojnarowski.
• Because of the J.R. Smith signing the Knicks had to cut a player from the roster. While every Knicks fan wanted the team to cut Mike Bibby the Knicks decided to cut Renaldo Balkman, it is the second time that they have cut him. The Knicks didn't cut Bibby because of lacking PG depth. Balkman tweeted about him getting cut, you gotta feel for the guy and what's even weirder is that the new Knick, J.R. Smith retweeted this.. It's like : "I took your job."

• The NBA announced the teams and players that will compete in the HAIER Shooting Stars Competion and they are the following: Team New York (Cappie Pondexter, Allan Houston and Landry Fields), Team Texas (Sophia Young, Kenny Smith and Chandler Parsons), Team Atlanta (Lindsey Harding, Steve Smith and Joe Johnson) and Team Florida (Marie Ferdinand, Dennis Scott and Jameer Nelson).
• New Yorkers can finally watch Linsanity as Time Warner and MSG Network finally reached a deal and the channel is back on the cable company. Well that took a long time.
• The losing streak ends at 16 as the Bobcats finally won as they beat the Raptors 98-91. What a nice present from the team to their owner as it is Michael Jordan's birthday. Happy Birthday Michael Jordan! 
• Talk about closing a game. Last night the Magic ended the game with a 17-0 run against the Bucks as they won the game 94-85. Dwight Howard had a double-double as he got 26 points and 20 rebounds while Ryan Anderson almost had a double-double as he had 23 points and 9 rebounds.
• "All he does is Lin" is no more as the Knicks fell to the Hornets 89-85 but Linsanity still exists as Jeremy Lin was the top scorer of the game with STAT as they both had 26 points. Ariza led the Hornets to their 3rd straight win as he had 25 points and 8 rebounds. Linsanity Meter: 3

NHL:

• According to HockeyyInsiderr Rick Nash's preferred destination are the Montreal Canadiens. This saga should end in the next week as Nash is expected to get traded before the deadline and the team that will get him is expected to pay a hefty price.
• Another trade was made today as the Habs sent Hal Gill and a 2013 5th round pick to the Predators for Blake Geoffrion, Robert Slaney and a 2012 2nd round pick.
• The Red Wings' home game winning streak reached 22 as Pavel Datsyuk scored with five seconds left in the game.
• The Capitals won the division matchup as they beat the Florida Panthers 2-1 as Ovechkin and Semin both scored a goal.
• The Bruins lost even more ground on the Rangers as they lost to the Winnipeg Jets 4-2 as Bryan Little scored twice.

MLB:

•  Tim Wakefield decided to retire than to return to the Red Sox for an 18th year with the team. A true Boston Red Sox legend.

• The Yankees and Pirates agreed on a trade for A.J. Burnett that will send him and $18.1 million to the Bucs while the Yankees will get Exicardo Cayones who is an outfielder and Diego Moreno a right handed pitcher. This looks like a win-win trade as the Pirates got a pitcher (ace sometimes) and the Yankees dumped some of A.J.'s salary.

• In other trade news, the Rangers are close to completing a trade with the A's for Koji Uehara according to Ken Rosenthal. The A's are silently building a nice team.
• The Chicago Cubs and the Boston Red Sox could not reach a compensation deal on Theo Epstein so the deal is now on the commissioner's hands and according to Phil Rogers he has spent a lot of time studying the case.

Soccer:

• In Italy Inter Milan lost again, this time to Bologna 0-3 as Vaio scored two goals and Aquafresca scored the other. In the other game of the day Fiorentina lost to Napoli. Ezequiel Lavezzi scored one goal while the other two came from Edinson Cavani.
• In England there is FA Cup action tomorrow. Teams like Chelsea and Arsenal could use this to rebound from their struggles.

Predicting tonight's games:

• NBA
• Spurs over Clippers
• Chicago over New Jersey
• Warriors over Grizzlies
• Atlanta over Portland
• NHL
• Penguins over Flyers
• Chicago over Colombus
• Blues over Wild
• Carolina over New York Islanders
• Capitals over Bolts
• Vancouver over Toronto
• Coyotes over Stars
• Los Angeles over Calgary

Noteworthy thing of the day:


David Letterman features a Top 10 and two days ago it was about the 10 worst Jeremy Lin puns. Check out the video below. Linsanity has taken the world by storm.

(POST WILL BE UPDATED AS THE DAY GOES ON)

Friday February 17th Top Sports News

Follow us on Twitter : @Sportsjournal5
NFL:

• The IFL is interested in Randy Moss. I think that an NFL team will get him in the end.
• Stevie Johnson and the Buffalo Bills exchanged contract proposals according to Rodney McKissic.

NBA:

• Jeremy Lin was added to the Rising-Stars draft. Get ready for Linsanity Orlando.
• Andre Iguodala agreed with Floyd Mayweather saying that Lin's success is due to his race. Bad comments, bad comments...
• Knicks are closing on a deal for J.R. Smith according to Frank Isola. Not a surprise as the Knicks are considered frontrunners for him along with the Clippers. Update: J.R. Smith has indeed picked the Knicks and could make his debut as soon as Sunday. One player will be cut though to clear up a place on the roster and that player seems like he will be Renaldo Balkman






• Lebron James has not ruled out a return to the Cavaliers and hopes that fans will accept him if he comes back. Well Lebron can't go to a team without two All-Stars so except if he returns for the last year of his career, I don't see him coming back.
• The players that will compete in the Dunk Contest were announced today and they are : Derrick Williams, Chase Budinger, Paul George and Iman Shumpert. Looks like a nice and young lineup.
• Nicki Minaj, Will.I.Am, Ne-Yo and Pitbull will all perform at the All-Star Week-end.
• The Pacers went back to their winning ways Thursday night by handing to the Nets their 8th straight loss by beating them 88-93.
• The Rose-less Bulls beat the Boston Celtics 89-80. The Bulls were led by Luol Deng and Carlos Boozer as they both scored 23 points while the Celtics were led by Kevin Garnett who scored 18 points.

NHL:

• The Rick Nash trade saga continues as there are five teams that Nash will accept a trade to : the Rangers, Kings, Bruins, Sharks and the Leafs according to Aaron Portzline.
• The Dallas Stars sent Nicklas Grossman to the Flyers for draft picks while the Sharks sent a second round pick to the Bolts for Dominic Moore.
• The Chicago Blackhawks finally snapped out of their nine game losing streak by beating the Rangers in NY last night 4-2 and by doing so ended the Rangers' five game winning streak.
• The Tampa Bay Lightning and the San Jose Sharks were involved in a very high scoring game in which the Bolts prevailed in Overtime 6-5 as the game-winning goal came from Martin St. Louis.
• The Flyers demolished the Sabres 7-2 and the Three Stars were the following:

Credit to NHL.com

MLB:

•  Johny Damon still has not found a team and it looks like he will go into Spring Training without a team. It has been said that teams don't want him because he is looking for 3 000 hits while they want him to look for walks.
• Teams won the arbitration hearings this year 5-2. Poor players... Just kidding they are all millionaires.
• The Houston Astros saw Scott Kazmir throw and the Mets are expected to check him out too.
• MLB Legend Gary Carter died yesterday at the age of 57. He was battling cancer. Rest in peace.
• There is a mystery team in for A.J. Burnett according to Buster Olney. The talks between the Pirates and Yankees are going very well and a trade is expected very soon but now with this mystery team in we will see where A.J. ends up. The mystery team is not the Angels, nor the Indians. Any guesses? We should watch out for the mystery team because they usually win.

Soccer:

• Thursday night's Europa League action was highlighted by the win of Manchester United against Ajax 0-2, Lazio losing to Atletico Madrid 1-3, Legia Warsaw tying with Sporting Lisbon 2-2, Manchester City making a comeback to beat Porto 1-2 and Stoke City falling to Valencia 0-1. 

Predicting tonight's games:

• NBA
• Raptors over Bobcats
• Orlando over Milwaukee
• Kings over Pistons
• Miami over Cleveland
• Mavericks over 76ers
• New York over New Orleans
• Grizzlies over Nuggets
• Minnesota over Houston
• Warriors over Thunder
• Utah over Washington
• Los Angeles over Phoenix
• NHL
• Ducks over Devils
• San Jose over Carolina
• Canadiens over Sabres
• Panthers over Capitals
• Detroit over Nashville
• Jets over Bruins
• Edmonton over Colorado

Noteworthy thing of the day:

• In probably the best advertisement of the year so-far, super-model Kate Upton teaches Justin Verlander, CJ Wilson, Joey Votto and David Price how to play the new MLB 2K12 game. You can't say that 2K doesn't know how to sell games.

(POST WILL BE UPDATED AS THE DAY GOES ON)

Thursday February 16th Top Sports News

Follow us on Twitter : @Sportsjournal5
NFL:

• The Tampa Bay Buccaneers cut Albert Haynesworth. He played in six games for them and I don't think that it will be easy for him to find another team.
• Add the St. Louis Rams to the teams interested in Randy Moss as Jeff Fisher likes him a lot.
• The Met Life Stadium, home of the Giants and Jets, will host Wrestlemania next year announced the WWE.
• Mark Sanchez wants Santonio Holmes to be his Valentine. Weird. Why would you want Holmes when you are rumored to be dating Kate Upton? Just kidding, why would you want Santonio in the first place?

Holmes : "Nope"

NBA:

• The NBA announced that the All-Star three-point shootout will feature : James Jones, Kevin Love, Anthony Morrow, Joe Johnson, Mario Chalmers and Ryan Anderson.
• Jeremy Lin gets a double-double to help the Knicks beat the Kings at MSG, 100-83, by doing so the Knicks extended their winning streak to 7 and are back to .500 (15-15). Tyreke Evans led the Sacramento Kings with 19 points. Linsanity Meter: 4. He put up 10 points and 13 assists in 26 minutes but we've seen a lot more Linsane things and the bar is high so this wasn't so crazy but another very good performance by him.
• Ryan Anderson (27 points) and the Orlando Magic beat the 76ers 103-87 as Howard added a double-double for the Magic, the Sixers were led once again by Lou Williams who recorded 7 assists and 21 points.
• The Boston Celtics were upset by the Detroit Pistons 98-88 as Stuckey scored 25 points and was followed by Gordon and Monroe who both had 22. The top scorer of the game was Rajon Rondo who exploded for 35 points. Do you think that the Celtics will make a trade before the deadline to shake things up? Tell us in the comments.
• The Hornets got their 6th win of their season and their second straight by beating the Milwaukee Bucks 92-89. Ilyasova led the Bucks with 23 points while the Hornets were led by Bellinelli who scored 22 points.
• The T'Wolves snapped out of their 4 game skid as they beat the slumping Bobcats 102-90. All-Star Kevin Love got another double-double while Charlotte was led by Kemba Walker who had 21 points.
• The Houston Rockets are one of teams who actually beat the Thunder even when Durant had scored a clutch three-pointer in the final 20 seconds of the game as they won 96-95. Martin had 32 for the Rockets while Kevin Durant had another big performance with 33 points.

Not this time Kevin.

NHL:

• NHL defenseman Bryan McCabe has retired.
• The NHL is planning to bring a team to Seattle, the plans will be unveiled tomorrow. Which team will land in Seattle? I say the Coyotes as they want to move from Phoenix. What do you think?
• Yesterday Flyers player Jaromir Jagr turned 40. Happy belated birthday!
• The Anaheim Ducks inched closer to a the 8th place in the Western Conference by beating the Penguins 2-1. They are now six points behind the 8th placed Phoenix Coyotes . Corey Perry and Teemu Selanne each scored a goal for the Ducks while Jordan Stall scored the Penguins' unique goal.
• Ottawa demolished Florida 6-2 Wednesday night. O'Brien, Daugavins, Butler, Alfredsson, Michalek and Kuba each scored a goal for the Senators while the Panthers' one goal came from Matthias and the other one from Campbell.
• No game between the Montreal Canadiens and the Boston Bruins could not be decided during the regular time so they went to overtime and then to a shootout in which the current NHL Champions prevailed.

MLB:

•  Yankees and Phillies are going hard after Jorge Soler according to Jeff Passan of Yahoo! Sports. The Cubs are also known to have shown interest so this will get interesting.

• Manny Ramirez still hasn't signed with a team but the A's look like the favorites.
• Danny Knobler of CBS Sports reports that Magglio Ordonez who is still without a team, is not willing to accept a minor league deal. Well its better to have something then nothing Magglio...

Soccer:

• In the Champions League AC Milan thrashed Arsenal 4-0 and the English's hopes of moving to the next round seem diminished. In the other game Zenit beat Benfica 3-2, the game in Portugal should be very interesting.
• In the Serie A in Italy, Juventus and Parma had a blank tie while Genoa fell to Atalanta 1-0.
• In International friendly competition Chile lost to Paraguay 2-0 while Nigeria beat Liberia 2-0 too.

Predicting tonight's games:

• NBA
• Pacers over Nets
• Chicago over Boston
• Clippers over Trail Blazers
• NHL
• Rangers over Blackhawks
• Philly over Buffalo
• Sharks over Bolts
• St. Louis over New York Islanders
• Jets over Wild
• Dallas over Calgary
• Kings over Coyotes

Noteworthy thing of the day:

• Olympic swimmer Matt Grevers proposed to his girlfriend Annie Chandler after winning at the Missouri Grand Prix. Aww. #WINNING

(THIS POST WILL BE UPDATED AS THE DAY GOES ON)

Wednesday February 15th Top Sports News

Follow us on Twitter : @Sportsjournal5
NFL:

• Jim Irsay the owner of the Colts said that he wants to keep Peyton Manning in Indy but with a reduced salary. If I was Manning I'd get out of there as for me he is not getting the respect he deserves from the owner of a team he gave so much too.
• The agent of Randy Moss said that three teams are already showing interest in him.
• Giants running back Brandon Jacobs is willing to restructure his contract with the Giants as he said that he would like to retire a Giants player but otherwise he would like to join the coach he bashed on live TV, Rex Ryan and go to the Jets.

NBA:

• J.R. Smith is coming back to the United States Wednesday and the contenders to get him are the Knicks, Clippers, Bulls, Pacers, Magic and Lakers. Those are the teams listed on his biography in Twitter with question marks next to each one of them.

I say Clippers or Knicks.

• Linsanity goes on! Jeremy Lin hit a game-winner three pointer for the Knicks against the Toronto Raptors with 0.5 seconds left on the clock! The Knicks had Stoudemire back who sported a new tattoo (a teardrop because of his brother's death a week ago due to a car accident) and their winning streak continues as it reaches six games. To show you how big the Jeremy Lin story is right now, the official site of the NBA (www.nba.com) had a Breaking News graphic on their site saying that Lin hit the winner. Normally the NBA only has those Breaking News graphics when a player gets injured, if there's a trade and when a team moves on to the next round of the playoffs. All he does is Lin. Linsanity Meter: 9. Another amazing game by Lin and he hit the game-winner so that's as amazing as it gets.

Linderella Story

• Tim Thibodeau will coach the Eastern All-Stars team the NBA announced after the Bulls beat the Kings in a very high scoring game, 121-115.
• The Indiana Pacers fell to the Miami Heat (who got their 4th straight away win) 105 to 90. Miami was led once again by Lebron James who scored 23 points.
• The Denver Nuggets snapped out of their 5 game home losing streak by beating the Phoenix Suns 109-92.
• In another very high scoring game the Washington Wizards beat the Portland Trail Blazers 124-109. It was a very impressive performance by the Wizards as Wall had 29 points and 9 assists, Nick Young had 35 points and Joe Crawford added another 21 points. Batum and Wallace had 33 and 25 points respectively for the Trail Blazers.

NHL:

• The Red Wings made NHL history last night. They beat the Dallas Stars 3-1 to reach 21 straight home wins which is a new NHL record. For the Red Wings Zetterberg, Stuart and Hudler scored one goal each while the goal of the Stars came from Burish.  Congratulations to Detroit.
• The Boston Bruins lost the Rangers 3-0 on Tuesday night. By doing so Henrik Lundqvist got his 7th shutout of the season and the Rangers extended their Eastern Conference lead to 9 points. Are they looking like a Stanley Cup contender? Yes Sir.
• The Chicago Blackhawks lost their 9th straight game as the Nashville Predators beat them 3-2. Things are not looking good for Chi-town and with the trade deadline approaching they should look for a trade.

MLB:

• The Tampa Bay Rays extended Joe Maddon's contract for another three years. 

• In other managerial news, the Kansas City Royals picked up Ned Yost's option for 2013.
• The Yankees and Pirates are still discussing the AJ Burnett deal but two other teams got into the mix for AJ Burnett. It was the Indians (Trade centered around Travis Hafner) and the Angels (trade centered around Bobby Abreu) but talk concerning those two teams are dead according to
• The Athletics did not give Cuban defector Yoennis Cespedes a no-trade clause according to Ken Rosenthal. If he turns into a star maybe he wont go Jason Giambi or Johnny Damon on the A's and leave them for another team with a lot more money than the A's.
• Let the rumors begin as Jorge Soler, the 19 year old Cuban OF is garnering a lot of attention from teams.

Soccer:

• In the Champions League Lyon beat APOEL 1-0. Not a big advantage as APOEL is known to upset and the next game is in Cyprus. In the other game Barcelona beat Bayern Leverkusen 1-3. Alexis Sanchez scored 2 goal for Barca while Messi scored the other one. The only goal for Bayern Leverkusen came from Kadlec.
• Olympiakos beat Rubin Kazan in Russia 1-0 for the Europa League in the other game Besiktas beat Braga in Portugal 2-0 by goals from Sivok and Simao.

Predicting tonight's games:

• NBA
• Spurs over Raptors
• Orlando over Philadelphia
• Celtics over Pistons
• Memphis over New Jersey
• Knicks over Kings
• Cleveland over Indiana
• Bucks over Hornets
• Oklahoma City over Houston
• T'Wolves over Bobcats
• Denver over Dallas
• Hawks over Suns
• Golden State over Portland
• Clippers over Wizards
• NHL
• Penguins over Ducks
• Montreal over Boston
• Senators over Panthers
• Toronto over Edmonton
• Canucks over Avalanche

Noteworthy thing of the day:

• The Yankees will release their official fragrance on February 21st, now you can smell like a Yankee. There will be two fragrances. One called "New York Yankees" and one called "New York Yankees for Her".

Monday February 13th Top Sports News

NFL:

• Slow News day for the NFL.
• Jason Pierre-Paul turned down TNA Wrestling so he won't appear on TNA Impact.
• Victor Cruz and Mario Manningham presented a Grammy Award. I wonder where Gronkowski was, he had to perform his Super Bowl losing shuffling. Video below:

NBA:

• The Lakers are interested in Allen Iverson reports Stephen A. Smith and according to Adrian Wojsnaroski of Yahoo Sports Gilbert Arenas went through a workout with Lakers officials there.
• The Boston Celtics beat the Rose-less Chicago Bulls 95-91 as Rajon Rondo gets a triple-double. Are they a legitimate contender to win it all? Nope.
• The Washington Wizards get their 6th win in the season. Wow.
• Monta Ellis exploded once again scoring 33 points as the Golden State Warriors beat the Houston Rockets 106-97.
• In the Southeast division battle the Heat beat the Hawks very easily 107-87.

Like a Bosh (Photo by Kevin C. Cox/Getty Images)

NHL:

• According to HockeyInsider would love to add Ryan Smith from the Edmonton Oilers, the Habs and LA Kings are talking about a possible trade, the Canucks are frontrunners for Ruutu, the Flyers and Blackhawks are searching for defensemen and the Capitals are looking for a Center. For all the details click on this.
• The Detroit Red Wing's tie the record for straight wins at home by winning their 20th one against the Flyers. They have a chance the set a new record Tuesday against the Dallas Stars and it looks like they will get it but you never know.
• The New York Rangers beat the Washington Capitals showing again why they are the #1 team in the NHL. This is hard stretch for the Rangers as they faced the Devils, Ligthning, Flyers, Capital and tomorrow the Bruins.

#10 of the New York Rangers Marian Gaborik skating
Photo by Scott Levy/NHLI via Getty Images

MLB:

• Roy Oswalt is still mulling his options. He will probably sign with a team the coming week or two.
• Baseball season is near! As it was Truck Day for the Red Sox and the reporting date for the Seattle Mariners on Saturday. So the MLB is back and in about two months the season will be underway.

Seattle Mariners practicing. AP Photo/Charlie Riedel

• Also if you haven't checked them out yet, check out my rankings of the top offseason signings by clicking this.

Soccer:

The Players of Zambia celebrate winning the African Cup of Nations (Photo by Getty Images)

• Zambia are the African Cup of Nations Champions as they beat Ivory Coast 8-7 in penalties. Congratulations to the underdog, Zambia! (I got my prediction wrong yesterday..)
• In England Manchester City gained back the first place by beating Aston Villa 1-0 and in the other game of they day the Wolves lost to West Brom 5-1
• In Italy Inter was upset by Novara which just recorded its 3rd win this season. Inter has shown why  Jose Mourinho is the best in the world, just remember how much of a power Inter was under him.
• In Spain the big teams dominated this Sunday as Real Madrid beat Levante 4-2, Villareal beat Granada 3-1, Valencia thrashed Sporting Gijon 4-0. In the other games Espanyol lost to Zaragoza 0-2, Malaga beat Mallorca 3-1 and Rayo Vallecano beat Getafe 2-0.
• Luis Suarez has apologized for his actions in saturday's game:
  I have spoken with the manager (Kenny Dalglish) since the game at Old Trafford and I realise I got things wrong," he said in a statement on the Liverpool official website. "I've not only let him down, but also the club and what it stands for and I'm sorry. I made a mistake and I regret what happened. "I should have shaken Patrice Evra's hand before the game and I want to apologise for my actions. "I would like to put this whole issue behind me and concentrate on playing football."

Predicting tonight's games:

• NBA
• 76ers over Bobcats
• Orlando over Minnesota
• Heat over Bucks
• Utah over New Orleans
• Mavericks over Clippers
• Golden State over Phoenix 
• NHL
• Sharks over Capitals
• Montreal over Carolina
• Canucks over Coyotes

Funny thing of the day:

• Texas Rangers pitcher Derek Holland gave the local forecast for WFAA in Dallas. Here is the hilarious video:

(POST WILL BE UPDATED AS THE DAY GOES ON)

Thursday February 9th Top Sports News

NFL:

• Victor Cruz says that he deserves a raise as he will only earn $490 000 next year. Will he get it? Can the Giants keep Manningham and give Cruz a raise at the same time? Comment below. 

NBA:

• The Rising Stars roster pool was selected yesterday. Among the rookies selected were Ricky Rubio, Kyrie Irving and others. The Sophomore pool features Blake Griffin and John Wall among others. Who is the biggest snub? Iman Shumpert of the New York Knicks.
• Tonight the NBA will announce the NBA All-Star Game's reserves. Will Dirk Nowitzki get another All-Star nod? What do you think? Tell us in the comments below.

NHL:

• The NHL announced today that the 2013 Winter Classic will feature the Detroit Red Wings and the Toronto Maple Leafs. Michigan Stadium will host this event.

MLB:

• Nelson Cruz and the Texas Rangers avoid arbitration as they reach a 2 year, $16 million deal.
• Yankees are still searching for a DH and are leaning towards the former Philly, Raul Ibanez. Also other candidates for the position are Johnny Damon and maybe 2009 World Series MVP Hideki Matsui.
• Nick Johnson signed a minor league deal with the O's
• Alex Gordon and the Royals avoid arbitration by reaching a one year deal worth $4.775 million.
• Yankees are looking to trade A.J. Burnett and the most likely suitor are the Pirates but apparently talks are not developing as the Bronx Bombers want Garrett Jones.

Soccer:

• Zambia reaches the African Cup of Nations Final as they stun Ghana 1-0. They will face Ivory Coast who beat Mali also 1-0.
• Tonight there are 4 Copa Libertadores games. These are one of the first games of the the Group Stage of the most important tournament in South America.

Predicting tonight's games:

• NBA
• Lakers over Boston in a close one.
• Blowout in Sacramento as the Thunder are in town.
• Houston over Phoenix.
• Golden State Warriors over the Nuggets as Monta Ellis erupts once again.
• NHL
• St. Louis over the Devils
• Canadiens over the NY Islanders
• Rangers win in overtime against the Lightning --> They Won in OVERTIME!
• Toronto beats Philly and you should expect high tensions.
• Washington over Winnipeg
• Easy win for the Stars against the Blue Jackets
• Ottawa over the Predators
• Florida over the Kings
• Vancouver over Minnesota
• Calgary over Phoenix